This is a pretty stellar DLC as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't succeed as survival horror if that was really the intent, and the villa sections are a bit too bland and samey visually, but those are the only little drawbacks.

All of the characters are interesting, and each of the three companions comes complete with their own perks and gameplay quirks.

The two new enemy types (regenerating "ghosts" and invincible holograms) both work well and force you to change up your playstyle from the base game, the former requiring a back-and-forth mix of guns + melee and the latter leading to more interesting stealth sections than can be found in the base game. I see a lot of reviews describing the ghosts as too difficult and/or frustrating, but all you need to do is punch them once with the bear-trap gauntlet after they go down. it's Dead Space rules and it's simple enough, and the game spells it out quite clearly, so I don't get why so many people struggle with that.

The radiation, poisonous clouds, and radios that trigger your bomb collar all shake up the gameplay in challenging and compelling ways and help the DLC quests feel distinct despite, of course, relying on all of the same core mechanics.

It's also a pretty chunky DLC with a lot to experience, all guided by strong writing and quest design. It's a smaller and more linear area to explore than the Honest Hearts DLC but it's much denser, and there's a good amount of freedom/exploration with each of the objectives, you hardly ever have to rely on waypoints or hand-holdy directions to get around and figure things out intuitively. For example, you can find a computer log that describes an elderly woman getting drunk and climbing out onto the rafters before being thrown out, and that's the game's subtle and super cool way of hinting that you should try going up on the rafters, where you can find a hidden control panel to shut off holograms and progress into a new area. Really clever design that makes it rewarding to pay attention to the details of every log you come across.

The theming is spot on too, smartly capitalizing on the Vegas, casino-centric setting. Even the title, Dead Money, is a poker term. I also love the way that the title of the great 1948 John Huston film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is recontextualized in the context of a casino heist, that's such a fun reference

The strategic card-based gameplay is excellent, but absolutely everything else is total garbage, and there's so much of it that constantly gets in the way of the one thing the game does well. Everything in the abbey sucks ass, and you're forced to spend so much time there engaging in cringy nonsense that you can only skip through one line at a time. Some of the worst writing and voice acting I've tried to endure to get to enjoyable gameplay, but I just can't do it. The one good bit isn't worth sloughing through all the other garbage

I hated Until Dawn but tried to go into this with an open mind hoping that Supermassive would have improved over the years, but no, this still got on my nerves instantly, especially the awful dialogue and annoying-as-hell characters (all of them). Horror is my favorite genre, and the prospect of playing an interactive horror movie has so much potential but the problem is that both Until Dawn and The Quarry would be total dogshit horror movies with terrible writing, and the interactive parts/choices jammed in are so awkward and clunky in execution, and that's when they aren't being completely faked, which they obviously are a lot of the time. Why is it only teams like this and David Cage that attempt this style/format? Can some people who actually understand horror and aren't terrible writers please take a crack at it?

Similar to Little Nightmares or Inside but with a bit more going on and a bit more dimension in the level design. There's a surprising amount of variety packed in here from the environments to the gameplay mechanics, but it doesn't outstay its welcome. Great use of folklore, beautiful art direction, effectively creepy, and multiple creative boss fights. There's a lot to recommend and not much that holds it back other than your character occasionally refusing to grab onto whatever ledge or surface you're meant to jump to, and dying in this type of game always means tediously renavigating the same environment you already went through with all of its luster removed on the second trip.

I played the hell out of Civ III back in the day but then didn't play IV or V (except for brief experiences with console ports, which were basically unbearable to play; this series really needs a mouse) so I'm not comparing this to the prior couple of entries.

I also have basically no experience with the 4X genre, which always intrigues me but is often intimidating to traverse the learning curve and/or too complicated for me to wrap my head around. Civ VI is complicated and intricate but is also intuitive enough to figure out as you move along, and it helps that it starts off so small and gradually expands, unlike some other games in the genre that thrust you into control of a whole kingdom or galaxy with dozens of different meters and resources and whatnot to manage right off the bat. Basically, Civ VI is more approachable and also made me eager to try other 4X games.

Marking as complete after getting my first victory, though I'm not done digging into the game by any stretch. (I don't think I ever finished a campaign in Civ III (I was like 10, gimme a break.))

It does a ton right when it comes to gamifying detective work, but I can't recommend the overall package. The biggest issue is that it's just way too short in an unsatisfying way. The version I bought was just called "Detective Grimoire" without the "Secret of the Swamp" subtitle, so I had no idea the whole game would just be the one extremely simple (and far too obvious) mystery. I thought this was like the tutorial case where everything is really easy because they are teaching you the mechanics and then the real game would start afterward with a challenging follow-up case, but no, it's just the one way-too-easy mystery.

I liked all of the individual gameplay mechanics but they felt like they were left at the tutorial stage without even a hint of challenge in the puzzles or any real thought required in the deductions. On top of that, I disliked all of the voice acting and thought the music sucked to the point of nearly just muting it. It has its charm though, and I liked the way it gamified detective work enough to consider giving the sequel a shot at some point